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“The society which has abolished every kind of adventure makes its own abolition the only possible adventure.” Paris, May 1968

Thursday, 24 April 2014

Understanding Ukraine.

Is the Ukrainian Republic about to unravel before our very eyes? If so it will almost certainly not be in a good way. Few places can have a more complex history than the Ukraine but in order to have any chance at all of understanding what is happening now it seems essential to try and make some sense of the past. No doubt there are many notable textbooks but I have found Neal Ascherson's Black Sea helpful and also The Red Prince by Timothy Snyder. The period after the First World War was hugely turbulent for Ukraine and anarchists in particular have always been fascinated with the exploits of Nestor Makhno. There is an interesting overview of Makhno on the Warfare Historian site.

2 comments:

Dr Llareggub
said...

Good piece on the Ukraine and Makhno, but I feel optimistic regarding the unravelling. A deal will be made between the US and Russia. Meanwhile the comrades in the EU will have to work harder for a unified EU state with its own credible military presence to match the US and Russia. Something to consider once all those horrid racist solationist/ xenophobic/ nationalists have been defeated by the heroic leftists in UAF, antifacist et al. I enjoyed reading of Makhno, and it see that he remains one of the anarchist heroes to survive examination. In contrast to Emma Goldman, whose racist and eugenicist views have been well documented. May I also suggest some consideration of the events now taking place in socialist Venuzuela. Students and demonstrators shot, regime tightens up on the media, usual cries from the leftists in the UK about evil capitalists trying to destroy a wonderful socialist experiment. Heard it all before over Russia, China, Cuba etc. And hearing it again from the Venuzuela Solidarity Campaigm, from Tariq Ali, Ken Livingstone, Kate Hudson, Left Unity, Progressive Women, several unions and Labour MPs, and of course censorship or reports in some anarchist blogs supporting Class War. I do see this as a moment of truth for the left, for those who think in terms of the left-right paradigm and support the latest socialist state.